BUSTLE Connecting two worlds.
The Mekelpark, the heart of the campus of the Delft University of Technology, is turning lifeless because more education and business is moving online. However, the online community of studying and hard-working students and staff is barely noticeable. "More home working is likely to be a permanent fixture " - BBC News Feelings of loneliness are not rare and people have the need more than ever to feel connected to one another once again. Bustle aims to bring the buzzing activity from the online community to the campus and gives the user a feeling of accompaniment.
Bustle is an interactive installation placed in front of the Civil Engineering faculty in the Mekelpark. It provides an immersive experience by making the busy activity of students working from home tangible. When encountering Bustle you can hear buzzing which represent the size of the online community at the moment. The nodes on eye level represent a person at home. Their name and location will be displayed. This way, one would have the feeling of actually interacting with a person rather than just some components reacting to your behaviour. Additionally, when someone comes close to one of these nodes, the whole installation works together to create an orchestrated sound experience. The quiet campus will be brought to life once again. To connect the installation to the online world Bustle has a website. It gives the users at home the opportunity to create their own perfect ambient sound to help them concentrate and study. With the use of nature-like sounds on the website the Mekelpark is brought to their home.
The installation on campus consists of a tightly hanging structure. There are approximately fifty nodes with a drum-like structure, connected with rope and clamps, stretched between trees. A lot of small nodes above your head and some big nodes on eye level to interact with. The nodes are made from laser cut wood and screwed together. Every node holds the following electronics: - a vibration motor and beads to create an intriguing, organic sound - black, white and grey wires to provide the nodes with power and to send signals between each other And only the big nodes have: - a proximity sensor to detect movement from a user -a OLED-screen to show a name and location of someone connected to the Bustle website - an Arduino Nano 33 IoT to control a cluster of the small nodes in the top layer and to collect the data from the website using a WiFi-connection Furthermore, the Bustle website collects the filled in names, locations, and the personal ambient sound. The site is served using a Node.js server. This server also facilitates communication between the Arduinos.
Team
Hannah Herremans, Renske Kaaijk, Laura Pîrcălăboiu, Roos Spee, Ricardo Vogel and Koen Weber
Category
Interaction Design / Installation Design
Timeline
Sep 2020 – Jan 2021